Chemistry at Dalhousie circa 1868

Abstract: This article describes details of classes at Dalhousie University in 1868â 1869, of the life of George Lawson, the first Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy, and of the wide range of chemical concepts known at that time. A comprehensive set of lecture notes from Lawson's chemistry course, written by a student, Alexander Russell, and held in the Dalhousie University Archives, offers a wonderful insight into the state of chemical knowledge and how it was taught at that time. Lawson began with general chemical principles followed by a detailed discussion of the nonmetals. The second half of the class covered a range of metals followed by a small section on mineralogy and a large section on organic and biological chemistry. Lawson used an older set of atomic masses in which many, but not all, of the elements had masses one-half of the accepted values today. When corrected for these errors, Lawsonâ s formulae, even for complex molecules such as morphine, mostly agreed with contemporary usage. Examples of nomenclature, chemical formulae, preparations, processes and properties are presented. A few examination questions are given also. Even though the concepts involved in understanding chemical structure were just being developed, the breadth and depth of descriptive chemical knowledge at that time was remarkable.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author